121895: Ruling on working in a centre that corrects exam papers that include subjects that are contrary to sharee‘ah

I work in a centre that corrects exam papers. The work involves adding up marks and entering them into the electronic system or returning the papers to where they should be kept, or printing them to be taken for checking. These exam papers include religious studies with questions about the beliefs and practices of the Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and others. Is my work permissible?.

Praise be to Allaah.

It does not seem that the work you are doing is haraam, for
a number of reasons:

1.
The nature of the work that you
are doing, which is adding up marks and entering them into the electronic
system or printing the papers, is permissible.

2.
The nature of the material that
is being worked on, such as mathematics, physics, biology, languages,
computers and cooking, is in general permissible.

But there remains the issue of the religious studies
material, which includes some things that are undoubtedly contrary to the
teachings of Islam or at least includes a discussion of religions from a
western point of view which involves a lot of distortion and off-putting
presentation of Islam.

But as the nature of your work is based on simply adding up
marks and printing, without teaching this material or correcting the
information mentioned in the answer papers, this does not involve directly
helping in sin and transgression.

However, there is still some reservation about it, because
there is some sort of help involved. Even though does not go as far as being
haraam, but it is better to be on the safe side, as the Prophet (blessings
and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Leave that which makes you doubt for
that which does not make you doubt.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (2518); classed
as saheeh by al-Albaani in al-Irwa’ (12).

However, you can continue working in your job whilst trying hard to avoid dealing with the papers that have to do with religious studies.